1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to cooking equipment, and more particularly to a high velocity forced hot-air cooking oven.
2. Description of the Prior Art
For many years, French-fried foods have been very popular and have been marketed extensively by the restaurant industry, particularly by so-called fast-food restaurants. The desire to reduce or eliminate hot oil, grease and fat from cooking equipment in the interest of safety, and to reduce or eliminate the content of such materials in the cooked foods, has led to adoption of counter-top cooking ovens which force hot air directly onto the food products to cook them. A couple of examples of patents pertaining to such cooking equipment are U.S. Pat. No. 4,374,318 issued Feb. 15, 1983, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,066,851 issued Nov. 19, 1991. In spite of the advantages of such equipment over deep-fat fryers, there remains a need for improvement. The present invention is directed to meeting that need.